Wednesday, 17 May 2017

Finally got around to trying out P&S in anger last
night, using my 15mm ECW figures. I know it’s been out for ever, but I get
distracted….OK?

Having loosely read them through, Two issues seemed odd
to me.

1.The splitting of infantry into separate musket
and pike units

2.The use of the “Hedgehog formation”.

Firstly, every ECW rules I’d ever encountered had
combined infantry units (Pike & Shot together) and secondly, I’ve not read anywhere
of the use of the “Hedgehog Formation” during the ECW and wondered how
historically important it was?

I see that the new “To Kill a King” P&S supplement has
finally introduced this option too.

The idea of the game was to become familiar with the
rules mechanisms rather than test the skills and tactics of the players! So we
just went for a straight forward encounter game, with both armies facing one
another. All units assumed to be “Normal” in size and 2 Battalia per army with
artillery support.

Early on my renowned dice rolling got me into a pickle
with units failing to get off the starting blocks whilst others raced ahead breaking
the line.

The main action took place in the centre where my
semi-armoured Cuirassier pushed back my opponent’s infantry unit despite taking
a casualty from the closing fire.

I decided not to follow up this with a further charge and paid for it with an
enemy counter-charge from their supporting cavalry, during their next move.

The demise of my Cuirassier started with them firstly
having received a single casualty by fire from the pushed back infantry unit.
As this was on a score of six, the Cuirassier became Disordered.

Then receiving a charge (even with delivering Closing
Fire first) my unit failed to win the HTH and as they were Disordered, were
destroyed. Harsh but probably fair……I should have followed things up.

This leads me to one issue that confused us all evening.
The score of a natural six leading to Disorder.
If that hit is later cancelled out by a Morale
Save, does the Disorder still
stand???

Anyone know?

All-in-all an enjoyable evening’s gaming. I think P&S’s
mechanisms will be easily learnt as we play more and I think an exercise separating
out those rules relevant only to the ECW would help there.

Saturday, 13 May 2017

Pleased with my TT Combat 15mm Ruined Town set, I decided to add their Church to my collection.

Once again, assembly was quick and straight forward. I sprayed the walls grey before I started. I had to leave the building secured with rubber bands overnight to allow it all to dry correctly.

You can see from the pictures that the roofs (all 5 of them) all come off to allow figures to be placed or to simulate damage, I guess. You can also see how bloody big it is!! Look how small the 15mm Comet appears alongside!!

Its more like a Cathedral/Minster than a church, and is clearly based on the Church in St. Mere Eglise in Normandy. It's therefore ideal for anyone wanting to game this action and would make a splendid backdrop.

I saw these on Facebook of all places, part of a GF9 Tanks group, and decided at £10 delivered they were worth a look.The set was for 6 partially destroyed 15mm detached houses.

I've since discovered that they are stocked by Firestorm Games in Cardiff, and that they are the same company that made the 28mm Wild West buildings I featured a couple of years ago.

The assembly instructions were printed on the packaging and looked pretty straight forwards,

Each building was on one sheet/sprue of MDF. Nicely etched with tile & brick detail and cleanly cut through, especially around the window detail. Before I started I decided to spray paint the walls in white primer and the base & roof in grey primer to speed things up later on.

Assembly as expected was straight forwards. I used normal PVA Glue throughout construction. The roofs are assembled separately and remain detachable so figures can be placed inside.

Once assembled I washed the inside with black paint to simulate the house being burnt out and then started the laborious job of painting all the window frames, door frames and touching up the areas my primer didn't reach!

For rubble I used a course artist's textured paste I bought from Lidl many moons ago. It dries exposing the textured lumps which are simply painted black before dry brushing with brick coloured acrylic paint. Finally the buildings were given a "dusty" dry brushing and a coat of Anti-Shine matt varnish from Army Painter.

There are three styles of building in the pack, each one duplicated. I added a couple of matchsticks for fallen rafters and a little flock around the outside of each building. Altogether a nice little project which has given me six very robust terrain pieces for WW2-Modern gaming.

Tuesday, 9 May 2017

Well after a somewhat traumatic two years travelling 60 miles each way to work and not having time to even pick up a paintbrush or D6, we've finally moved to sunny Wales and I now have my very own Wargaming Room!

About Me

I’ve been wargaming since I was 14 when I was first introduced to WRG’s Ancient Rules by a friend at school. I have tried just about every period in history + Sci-Fi & Fantasy gaming - but I guess my favourite period is still WW2. My favourite rules are Warmaster and all its derivatives (i.e. BKC, CWC, FWC, Black Powder, Hail Caesar, Pike & Shotte etc.).....mainly because the WM mechanism is simple for someone my age to remember!
I’m also a keen amateur military historian. Researching my family’;s activities in times of war and visiting the sites where it all took place.